TECC 143: How to Set Goals and Track Progress in your Engineering Career

Let’s take a walk together. In this episode, I am going to give you seven steps that you could use to get super focused on your career growth including where you want to go in your career. I will also explain to you how to track your progress in your engineering career. (The recording of this episode was taken during my daily lunchtime walk.)

Engineering Quotes:

Here are 7 points on how to set goals and track your progress:

1. Get clear on where you want to go in your engineering career.

Get as specific as you can get on this. Decide what type of work you would like to do. Paint the picture to the fullest extent that you can paint this picture.

2. Get clear on why you want to go there.

Think about what it is about this specific engineering position that is going to be fulfilling you. Figure out what is driving this decision for you and what is making this such an attractive place for you to be in your career.

3. Understand and plan out the steps it will take to get there.

A good way to figure this out is to talk to people. Talk to people who have achieved a goal similar to this before or other. Once you figure this out, you are way ahead of the game.

4. Create goals

Put your goals on paper and give yourself a deadline.

5. Use as many metrics as possible that you can use to measure those goals – quantitative methods.

A few examples of measurements are:

Your progress towards a certification;

Tracking your business development wins;

Doing one speaking engagement a month on the topic that you want to become an expert on.

Do this in a spreadsheet that can be easily updated. You can put the best dashboard in place, but if you are not updating it, then it is of no use to you. Update this consistently and get others to help you if you need to.

7. Find an accountability partner.

No matter how motivated or successful you have been in your career, if you have another person working with you on your success path, I guarantee you that you are going to get there quicker.

More in this episode…

In the Take Action Today segment of the show, I will summarize these seven points discussed in the episode.